‘Mandela’ movie review: Yogi Babu excels in a film that understands caste structure and vote-bank politics

Debutante Madonne Ashwin’s ‘Mandela’ is a first-rate political satire that shows how deep-seated caste is, by taking an unflinching yet unsentimental look

There is a minor detail — packed in the form of a dialogue that you may miss noticing — in Mandela, that tells more about caste structure than the film. It arrives when violence breaks out between two dominant caste groups, the leaders of whom are half-brothers and are pitted against each other in the local body elections. In the raging war between the North and the South, the regions predominantly occupied by the two caste groups, Yogi Babu, a barber, stands in the middle. Looking at him, a character wonders if he was thekkoru (South) or vadakkuoru (North) and the man next to him says, “He is podhu (public).” Note that he doesn’t own a land. This seemingly inconsequential piece of conversation speaks volumes of the mentality of the upper-caste/dominant caste, especially in the way they perceive Dalits as public property that they can possess and poach on. It comes from a place of entitlement and this callous attitude over the oppressed is the spirit that holds Mandela together, treading a careful line between romanticising caste practices and making a mockery of them.